A/N: Quick note, you're going to start seeing music titles in notes from here on. I listen to music when I write major scenes, and I even used to set scenes TO music (mostly in other fics) by measuring word count between sections of the song and comparing it to the average 200 words/minute speed. These won't be set to music - I won't restrict them like that - and you're free to ignore them or go and look up the song to listen to while you read like I do.
Ultimatum 2: Now and Never
Enki's black shield was deflected upward on the flat of Kaara's knife. Pistol in hand, she fired on him, striking his shields several times as he charged forward. Gravian took aim, but held her fire as Enki got too close to the other two for her to avoid potentially hitting them.
Enki blocked a stab from Kaara, shoved her back into Soren, and caught his shield as it came down. His right hand encased in ice and he blasted the two with Stasis, freezing them in place. The instant his attack was released, however, Gravian shot him in the head with her Queenbreaker. The shot pierced his shield and dented his helmet, and he stumbled.
Gravian, without a word went on a full offensive, vaulting over her two frozen allies and kicking Enki into the office doors opposite, where Kaara had moved to search. The automatic doors opened slightly as Enki flew through the air, too quickly for them to clear his way, and he fell awkwardly to the other side of the doors. As the doors fully opened, Gravian was already moving in, so Enki threw an Icewall grenade to the doors, freezing the opening closed and stopping her advance for a moment.
Gravian heard the ice shatter behind her, but before she could look back and say anything, Soren threw a Solar grenade at the ice sheet sealing the door. Kaara stepped back and vanished into her stealth field, even turning off her IFF. Soren burst through the doorway, hand cannon at the ready.
Enki was nowhere to be seen.
"Gravian, I need you to keep him busy. I have to finish what we came here for; I can't be distracted like this. There's no time."
"Then retreat," said Gravian. "I will handle him. I'm sure I will not be alone." She drew an Archon class hand cannon. Soren found it was one he recognized.
Soren turned, ducked, and Enki's shield hit the wall behind where his head would've been, bounced, and returned to Enki's grip as he leapt from behind a nearby desk to catch it and fire at Soren with an auto rifle. Gravian swept her arm and deployed a Titan's Barricade, blocking all but the first few bullets. Enki kept firing and approaching, so Soren ducked out of the room through the doors, leaving Gravian to fend for herself.
Enki came right through the barricade, overconfident, and found himself bashed across the office, over more than one table, and into a heap covered in papers, chairs, and an assortment of devices. Gravian started walking forward, completely ignoring everything between them as it was shoved this way and that by her powerful stride. With each step, she fired at Enki with Viksis' hand cannon, oversized rounds slamming into Enki's black shield. She reached him, bent to grab him off the floor with her left arms, and reloaded with her right.
Enki laughed, not a shred of worry in his voice.
"So this is the student of my student, huh?"
"You are not Enki-0. Do not speak as if you are."
"Ehh, suit yourself. Salvation has its benefits."
Enki froze his right fist and punched Gravian in the chest. As the Stasis washed over her, not quite able to freeze something of her size in one blow, Enki broke free and summoned his auto rifle again. This close, Gravian recognized the Iron Banner handiwork.
"You should've come to the winning side when you had a chance," he said, aiming for her head.
"And you-"
Kaara took his legs from under him, hooked her right arm about his neck, and presented her knife as she faded out of her stealth field.
"-Should've watched your back."
Not a thing in the room had been disturbed in her approach. The knife streaked down and a blast of cold air froze them both. Gravian stumbled back, almost frozen herself. Ether surged through her and she shook it off, but not in time to stop Enki from freeing himself, grabbing up Kaara, and throwing her at Gravian.
Gravian didn't stumble much at the impact, but she was surprised enough that Enki was able to spray her with auto rifle fire before she could recover. She punched two nearby desks with Disintegrate, converting enough matter to give her the overshield she needed. Kaara received it too, though to a lesser extent, and Gravian threw her backward with her lower right arm.
Gravian's upper right arm, however, returned fire as she began to advance again, moving to press Enki into retreat.
"Defender and Sentinel tactics won't work," he declared, tossing his rifle up and blasting Gravian with more Stasis.
"The closer you get, the easier it is to freeze you."
Gravian took the blast in stride and Solar light strobed across her body. Still taking careful shots with her hand cannon, she lit aflame.
"You forget who you speak to," she said. With her left hands, she threw two Solar-infused hammers at him.
Enki dodged one and blocked the other with his shield, but Gravian got her success when he retreated a few steps and kicked over a desk for cover. Gravian tried to shoot through it anyway, but the Glimmer-constructed metal held against even her enormous Archon class rounds.
Gravian continued forward, passed her hammers, and simply held out her hands, palms down. The two hammers flew from the floor up into her grasp and vanished, replaced by an incendiary grenade, which Gravian lobbed behind the desk where Enki hid. She reloaded with her right arms again as the grenade bounced before explosion.
Just as it went off, Enki dove out of cover, out of the blast radius, rolled, and took a few steps on the office windows. He threw his shield and another Stasis grenade. Gravian deflected the shield but was caught in the grenade, this time a pocket of dark energy that sapped her strength and began to freeze her.
Enki's boots hit the floor, he snatched up his shield - and ran for the opposite door toward Soren.
Kaara caught one of his feet as he ran, forcing him to roll or go down face-first. The two raced to see who would stand first, but Kaara stuck a smoke grenade to Enki's chest before either of them gained their feet. She flipped back and drew the Void bow of a Nightstalker, but this time it was Enki who deployed a barricade to cover himself.
Kaara's arrow struck the barricade and collapsed in on itself, beginning to lazily pulse, waiting.
Soren found the correct terminal, let his Ghost do its work, but didn't dare leave its side. He watched the chaos unfold through the office window, the flashes of light, the gunfire. A progress bar had never felt more like a ball and chain.
"You were smarter than this," said Enki, waiting behind his barricade.
Kaara didn't answer. Her trap would outlast his wall.
"There's a clear victor here," he continued, "You know that."
He looked over at Gravian, who was frozen for the moment.
"All you have to do is give in. Like I did. There's more power in Dark than we ever found in Light. I can keep pace with the two of you, and I'm alone. Imagine what will happen if I get back-up."
Kaara stood unmoving. She had a sidearm raised, knife still at her side, knowing exactly the instant the barricade would fail.
Enki sighed. "Of course. The mission is what's most important. I know. I remember that much, at least. But I also know I always wanted better for you. Wanted you to be more dynamic; think for yourself more often than accepting orders or letting others do the planning and discussion."
"We all have things we're good at," said Kaara. "I'm good at winning. And it will take more than the shadow of you to change that."
"Ooh, you wound me, but… Kaara, you should know. The brighter the light, the longer the shadow."
He raised a hand and put up a second barricade, just before the first would fail. A new one didn't so much snap in place as the original reconstructed, back to front, just a few centimeters closer to him. Enki put his shield on his back and pulled back both his hands, dimming the room around him as he drew forth the Dark.
Kaara instantly dropped her stance for balance and entered the blade trance. The very instant her Void trap vanished, Enki charged through his barricade. Kaara jumped, too high, and flipped to put her feet to the ceiling. She pushed off toward the ground behind Enki and slashed at his back. Enki slid unnaturally on the floor, bringing his shield down in the way of the blade, then turning on his heel to punch Kaara in the shoulder.
Kaara flew back toward Gravian, who broke free of the ice and caught her. Enki, rather than take the opening to pursue Soren, slammed his fists down and sent a wave of ice through the office at them, flinging every loose object in the room into chaos. Gravian passed Kaara back, confident the Exo would land on her feet, and swept all four arms from her lower left to her upper right. Following the motion, wispy flames coalesced to form the Devastator's Burning Maul.
Gravian blew through the wall of ice and a whirlwind of Solar light burst into the room, a morning sunrise. Enki, midair, ready to punch through the wall, became a corona surrounded by the flame kept at bay by his own energy. His momentum dead, he landed on his feet and clapped his hands to answer with his own blast of cold air, but Gravian was not dimmed.
With a single, unwavering step into the cold, Gravian brought the maul down and everything in the office but Enki that remained in front of her was thrown against the opposite wall, burning away. Kaara twisted around her and slashed upward at Enki, a Razor's Edge that finally managed to unbalance him despite his empowered state.
"A true Sentinel would never falter like you," said Gravian, calm. She raised her maul, pulled it back with her left arms, and it reformed almost effortlessly into a Sentinel's Shield.
"Not in a fight. And not to the Dark."
Enki began to stand, looking at the two through a crack in his helmet. His usual orange lights were a cool blue, almost the color of Kaara's.
"But then," continued Gravian, "I suppose that would make me the only true Sentinel left."
Ice covered the gap in Enki's helmet and he radiated Stasis with the sound of his angered, wordless reply. With a sweep of his arm, Enki created another wave of ice - away from the windows to his right and the foes ahead of him. Most of the office filled with Stasis crystals, and Enki held out his hand to them.
The crystals, like his barricade, didn't shatter so much as retreat to his grasp in the form of a spear.
"You have no idea what you're trying to fight," said Enki, "Do you?! The Traveler fled every time. Even that thing knew you couldn't win. And the only reason it stayed this time, we all know by now, is because Rasputin didn't let it get away. That spiteful AI sealed your fate back then and you're still resisting! Why?!"
Kaara stood straighter, Arc Blade at her side.
"It's the Dark speaking," she said. "Not you. Not Enki. You really are gone, aren't you."
The statement gave Enki pause.
"If you're telling us to give up," she continued, "And you claim to remember things… Then why don't you think about all the times we gave up before? Let me know when you find one. Maybe I deleted it."
Kaara slashed again, another Razor's Edge. As Enki moved his left arm to block with the Stasis gauntlet, he saw her clearly. Kaara's motion continued as she flipped into the air, a second dagger - not her sidearm - in her right hand. A Wraith's Spectral Blade.
Kaara vanished and both Gravian and Enki were shocked still for a moment at the sight. The sudden quiet. Over comms, Gravian heard her voice very softly.
"There's more ships that just arrived. Soren will need help. Leave me. Protect the mission."
Kaara reappeared in the same spot she'd vanished from, diving straight at Enki knives first - the last thing he expected.
The office door opened and Soren's head snapped over, followed closely by his hand cannon's barrel. An Exo stood in the doorway, helmet off for the moment, auto rifle in hand.
"Soren?" asked the copper and red Exo.
"Who- How-?"
"Hardiman-13. I used to work here, long ago."
"You still had the telemetry data? After thirteen resets?"
"Golden Age secrets don't die easy. Neither does Bray engineering. I understand you needed back-up, with Light on demand?"
Soren didn't lower his gun.
"My Kell?"
Ramiks had paused in a doorway. Among the many Fallen installations in The Reef, the two had been making headway toward their objective inside an asteroid - until Ramiks had them stop.
"These things," he continued, "Are they not human in design?"
Morik turned back to look into the same room. By the light of Ramiks' Ghost, there were pods in the room that had yet to be scrapped. Two of them had been torn open, on purpose it seemed, for research.
"Ghost?" asked Morik. He deployed his.
The little light approached the pods and began to scan them. After a few seconds, it produced its analysis.
"I've heard of this project," it said. "During the Golden Age, humanity didn't just assume there would never be war again. Even humans struggled with their misunderstandings."
"We have seen."
"These were part of a research project to insert troops from space. Normal aerial insertion was done out of dropships or planes, needed oxygen masks and special equipment like suits. The idea here was to have the soldier already equipped for heavy combat, and launched from low orbit in these pods. The pods are fitted for everything you need to survive a fall into Earth's atmosphere, so anyone riding in one can save their equip space for their combat loadout. Transmat is much more efficient, if shorter range. I wonder what the Fallen were-"
It turned back to look at them.
Morik and Ramiks looked at one another.
Ramiks cackled under his breath.
A/N: Battle Against A True Hero (Falkkone cover) originally by Toby Fox
Arc Blade met Stasis Lance in a flash of light and Enki was pushed back over the floor a few inches. He tried to push Kaara away, holding the lance with two hands spread apart, but she withdrew slightly and redirected her attack. Her Spectral Blade streaked up - straight through the shaft of the lance, splitting it in two. Enki fell forward, off balance, now holding a sharpened icicle and an ice club.
In that opening, Gravian charged in. Kaara stepped aside like she knew Gravian would be coming, and Enki met Gravian's Sentinel Shield with the edge of his angular Midnight Exigent helmet. Gravian didn't stop to see his condition; she ran for the office door leading to Soren's side of the installation and vanished.
Kaara pounced, knives at the ready as her tiger claws, to strike Enki down before he could recover, but she was too slow. Enki rolled aside and struck her with the blunt end of his former lance, then stabbed her in the side with the icicle. Kaara cried out and slashed with her Arc Blade, the nearest one to Enki. He blocked with the club and kicked her off the icicle. Kaara flew back toward the wall, caught herself on a console built into the wall, and ended up with her toes to the wall and knuckles on the console.
Enki looked at his split weapon, pulled his hands back, and formed the ice back to Stasis gauntlets.
"I should've known better than to challenge you with a weapon. I don't need the Ward to beat you hand to hand."
"You lost when you betrayed who you were."
Kaara pushed off the wall, flipped forward, and slashed down with her two blades - only to vanish partway into the attack. Enki had raised his guard and prepared a punch, but he predicted Kaara would try a blink attack. He swept his cocked fist back and spun, ready to strike Kaara as she appeared behind him… But she didn't appear behind him.
To his right, she landed from her jump and blink, two meters away, out of range completely. Enki was too slow, however, to realize she was still a Bladedancer in part. With her Blink Strike, Kaara warped to her left and stabbed Enki just under his chest plate. With her right hand still closed, she slammed her fingers against the pommel to drive it across Enki's stomach, carving him open with Arc Light.
The Light invaded Enki's body and he screamed, but he wasn't dead yet. He landed a hammer fist with his right Stasis gauntlet, flattening Kaara and freezing her to the office floor. With his left hand he punched down to crush her head. Kaara arched her back into a scorpion kick to deflect the blow, unable to free her upper body in time. Enki's fist crunched through the floor panelling, forcing him to undo the Stasis gauntlet to free his hand.
It gave Kaara the time she needed. Solar Light was the furthest thing from her strength, but she knew how to use it. Abandoning the two blades, the fusion of Arc and Void Light she'd mustered in her fit of emotion, she melted the ice and sprang backward, drawing her pistol and knife.
Enki drew the remaining ice up into a new lance and froze his stomach plates closed. Along with his helmet and several other small breaches, he was almost as much ice as armor plate by now.
"You-" he started, but faltered. "Y-you- You- Y-y-y-y-yAAAGH-A-AGH!"
He'd pointed with the lance, apparently about to say something, when he lost all composure and fell to a knee, left hand on his helmet.
Kaara hesitated, but not long. She drew the Solar energy into her pistol for Golden Gun shots and aimed.
"N-N-N-N-NIGHT! NIGHTST-STALK-STALKER-ER! K-KAARA!"
The ice holding Enki's armor together shattered away and Void light practically ripped through the gaps. Enki tore off his helmet. His casing was fully cracked open and the left side of his head was actively being replaced by Vex construct metal. The light in his left eye was orange.
Kaara looked at him through the sights of her Golden Gun. It was a trick. Only a trick. Desperation. Nothing more. Just fire. All she had to do was fire and one bullet would do.
Still holding the lance, Enki's right hand went to his head and began trying to brush away the Vex metal as it grew rapidly from the breached case on his head. He kept screaming, struggling with himself, but it was nonsense for the most part. Until-
"K-Kaara! Back-up! There's back-up! Guardians! They-they know! Where-ere I a-am!"
Enki's left hand clasped over his right, which gripped the lance, and both hands went up over his head for a moment. His left hand freed itself and a Sentinel Shield appeared on his arm. He punched down to the floor, smashed the lip of the shield on the ground and gained his feet.
His right eye flickered and went out. Vex metal continued to quietly creep over the left side of his head, oddly angular compared to the human shape of the rest of it. He still held the lance in his right hand.
"We can't let them reach Soren."
Kaara's Golden Gun went out.
"Get down!" yelled Soren.
Hardiman ducked and Soren shot another Guardian full in the face with his hand cannon. Without an instant of hesitation, Hardiman spun and a lightning bolt - not a pedestrian electric strike one normally sees of a Stormcaller, but a true, stroke-and-return lightning bolt - streaked from his hand to the Guardian's chest as they flinched.
The resulting thunderclap and recoil to his arm had Hardiman stumble into the room away from the door. The Guardian's armor was torn open and they lay dead and unmoving between the offices. No Ghost rose for a revival; this was a Guardian who had turned.
"I came alone," said Hardiman. "If it's not an ally of yours, don't hesitate. The Kell sent me. He really surprised me with his message."
"He sent you here?"
"No, he asked for my help and told me where the other teams were going. I came here because Europa is where the largest concentration of enemy forces are, and it looks like I made the right call."
"Look, I'm stuck here waiting for my Ghost to finish rigging up a message to the past, alright? I have no idea how long this is going to take, but right now my fireteam is fighting another Guardian next door and they need the help more than I do."
"I think you're misunderstanding something."
Hardiman reached up and his helmet appeared, a Black Armory model. He checked over his red Seventh Seraph Carbine.
"Those two fighting over there are already buying you time. I'm here with you because of that."
Hardiman jerked a thumb over his shoulder to indicate the other Guardian they'd killed.
"The only reason I got here first was because, like I said, I used to work here and I knew exactly where to go. They split up to look for you, and I managed to slip in first. I thought I lost them. I guess I was wrong. It's only a matter of time before the other five show up. You think you can fight five Guardians without your Ghost, while also defending that terminal?"
Soren lowered his gun.
"Just so we're clear," said Soren, "I don't need my Ghost to fight anymore. Morik managed to train some of us before this whole disaster. If those Guardians show up-"
"When they show up."
"-When they do," accepted Soren, hoping Hardiman could see his eyes roll through his visor, "I can promise you they wouldn't get through me very easily. At least not as easy as you seem to think."
"I think you'll find-"
The door opened behind Hardiman and he turned. His auto rifle was still disappearing, still in the process of transmat by his Ghost, when Gravian burst through the opposite door and into the group of five Guardians all aiming at him. She blew all of them off their feet with a pulse from her shield, and Hardiman followed up with a Landfall strike preceding his Stormtrance.
One of them, a Titan, managed a barricade in time to save all their lives, but it wasn't enough to completely negate the damage. The barricade shattered and they were thrown to the floor between Hardiman and Gravian for a brief moment.
"You can thank your Kell for this, Soren!" said Hardiman. "Just keep them away from the terminal!"
A/N: Compression Space from Zone Of The Enders 2, a game composed by Maki Kirioka, Akihiro Honda, Toshiyuki Kakuta, and Norihiko Hibino. Recommend an extended version.
The five were back on their feet, already moving to focus fire and reposition, but Gravian held up her shield and charged toward them. Two, Warlocks, summoned staves to blast her with Stasis and slow her. The other three, two Hunters and a Titan, dove aside to flank her.
Hardiman snapped into being between them and Gravian, swept his hands up, then forward. A wave of Arc Light lifted them off the floor panelling, then blew them down the bridge toward the computing core in the center of the chamber. They only flew a short way by comparison, but the breathing room was all Hardiman needed.
"You! Gravian! Switch with me! I'll handle those two!"
Gravian threw a Suppression grenade and turned, accepting the damage her shield would take from their guns, but when she turned there was no Hardiman to see in her way. Only the other three Guardians on the bridge. Hardiman was already behind her, using Ionic Blink with such ease it was as if he could truly be everywhere at once.
Soren, inside the office, found himself relaxed and off guard in awe as Hardiman showed the results of Morik's teachings. With his own connection to the Light, Hardiman wasn't flinging webs of electricity and grenades - he warped in, close enough to touch his foes, and with each hand he cancelled more Stasis projectiles, then forced them both back the way they'd come. The two slid over the floor, unbalanced only for an instant, but Hardiman was behind one with a crack of static.
Hardiman hooked an arm around the Guardian's neck, kicked the back of their knees and paused.
"You," he said, "You were human."
He snapped the Guardian's back over his knee, shoved them to the floor, and caught a Stasis grenade his other foe threw at him.
"Be glad."
He crushed it in his fist.
"You are the first units I've challenged with my new strength. If the Dark had only waited a little longer, there would be so many more Guardians just like me. Like us. You wouldn't have had a snowball's chance in Hell against us."
To their credit, the Guardian didn't falter.
"Curse your own fate," they replied. "You've chosen to abstain from our salvation and be left behind instead."
Without looking down, Hardiman fried the paralyzed Guardian at his feet with both hands and laughed.
"Well? Come on, then. Save me."
On the bridge, Gravian had closed her distance and deployed her Ward of Dawn. She fought both to defeat each of her three targets, but also keep them inside the Ward. When one would try to escape, she had an arm to pull them back, her strength as an Archon equal to any Kell before her irresistible to even them.
"You fools!"
She blocked a punch and countered in one motion.
"You've narrowed yourselves without the Light!"
She grabbed a Hunter by the shoulder, elbowed them in the head, and threw them to the floor.
"What tricks do you have to compete?!"
One of them threw a chill dust in her face, freezing just her faceplate since they couldn't stop her from moving. In that moment, the Titan broke for the offices and the two Hunters retreated further down the bridge. Gravian cursed and ripped the ice from her face, but when she saw how her foes had moved, she laughed to herself in the Ward.
With grace, she relaxed her lower arms to dispel the Ward, and with her upper arms she aimed and fired at one of the Hunters, charging the shot as the Ward dissolved. Still in midair, he couldn't dodge the Queenbreaker bolt that pierced his lighter armor and killed him before his feet touched the ground again.
"'Know thy enemy,' is ancient wisdom for your people, yes?!"
She aimed again.
"I am Gravian! Archon of Light! None escape my reach!"
The Hunter flipped back on top of the computing core and cloaked. Gravian growled and threw another Suppression grenade, then shot it out of the air above the core. When no Hunter appeared, she deployed a barricade and knelt, watching.
The arrival of the Dark Titan shifted Hardiman's battle. As the other Warlock had been trying to freeze him, Hardiman had been radiating his Light strongly enough to negate the Stasis without any downtime, but it prevented him from blinking. The Titan slid forward and scratched her fingers over the floor as she rose, summoning pillars of ice that overwhelmed Hardiman and finally froze him.
Soren's Ghost returned to him.
"It's done!"
"Right on time." Soren's hand cannon vanished from his hands.
"Assistance!" came Gravian's voice in his ear.
Several things happened at once.
Soren stood from where he'd been kneeling and looked out the window to see Gravian on the bridge, alone. A dropship, transmitted inside the chamber, had released twelve Guardians. These were different. Worse. Their forms were all black, swimming with a cosmic and evil force. Taken.
As he looked, he channelled his Solar Light. His Heart of Praxic Fire responded, overcharging him in response to every ounce of strength he himself could muster. His next step released a wave like a Titan's Thermite grenade, flames racing out the open door and shattering the ice holding Hardiman before the two Guardians could kill him.
He saw Enki in the opposite door, then, Sentinel Shield in one hand, Stasis Lance in the other, with Kaara behind him. Soren parted his lips, pulling his breath through his teeth and shoring up his Light into a Solar grenade in each hand.
"Duck."
Hardiman dropped flat and Soren obliterated the two Guardians standing over him. His grenades each struck one full in the chest, melting through their shields, allowing the subsequent radiant light to fry their armor - and finally them. Soren strode from the office and into his own Solar light. Hardiman stood, taking his turn to be impressed.
Soren looked directly at Enki, noticing the single active eye and Vex metal on his head. There was only a moment of pause, but Soren could tell. The stance, Kaara's silhouette, the confidence. Something about Enki said everything Soren needed to hear. All four turned and ran down the bridge to save Gravian.
For her part, she lived true to her words. In the face of thirteen Guardians, twelve of them completely unknown entities if they truly were Taken, Gravian didn't retreat a single step back. A yell as ferocious as any Eliksni had ever uttered in her throat, Void Light in every gap of her armor, she beat back the enemy.
One leapt for her legs to unbalance her. She swung a leg back, bent her knee, caught the Guardian by the helmet, and used her other three arms to redirect herself upward. Her leg straightened, her knee came forward, and the Guardian's helmet dented under her kneecap, sending the creature sailing back.
Two more fired their weapons at her as that happened - guns fused into their arms. Gravian swept a hand up on either side and summoned miniature barricades in the air, blocking their line of fire just enough to save her head and shoulders from the hail of projectiles.
She lobbed yet another Suppression grenade at the rest, trying to keep them from bringing their full power to bear and holding her ground. The time to save her strength was over, she knew. As more of the Taken approached her at a sprint, the Hunter from earlier snuck in a sniper bullet from atop the core, forcing Gravian's head to snap back and causing her to lean backward from the force meeting her helmet.
Gravian turned her returning momentum into an Ether-charged stomp, roared her defiance, and quietly said her goodbyes. Her barricades faded, her light retreated, and for an instant she was only a single Fallen.
"HYEEEEEEAAAAAAAAA!"
A purple flash to blind all in the chamber erupted and Gravian had two Sentinel Shields, one for each side. She charged forth, unaware that her four allies were on her heels, and from there it was chaos.
A/N: RE: NieR: Automata - City Ruins (feat. Rena) by Falkkone, originally composed by Keiichi Okabe.
Do not chase your memories. You are a Guardian now. A member of my House, my family. If a Titan you wish to be, we will see that your Light dims the very stars above…
We go. The Ketch will destroy the City if we stay. The House is yours now. I know you will make them all proud…
"As I breathe!"
Gravian's left shield bashed a Taken into a crater on the side of the core.
"House of Light will never die!"
The Hunter appeared on her back, knife drawn. Kaara landed on Gravian's left shoulder with one foot, and kicked the Guardian off with the other.
"There are more. A fierce enemy assault," she announced, without losing balance as Gravian repelled another Taken.
Kaara flipped off her back and threw a Skip grenade down the bridge. Four Titans marched toward them, guns drawn and firing. The Skip fragments slowed them down, but didn't stop them.
Soren alone had killed a third of the Taken in the meantime, his Light pulling grenades into his hands faster than he could throw them. Enki broke away, shield up, and rushed the four Titans. Hardiman had another six Taken locked in place with a shower of electricity.
"We can't do this forever!" said Soren. He could feel his arms going numb, his body giving in to the Heart's power.
"Down the bridge!" said Enki. "We can't transmat out the way we came in; they'll be waiting for us out there! Guardians! Vanguard! Forward!"
Gravian spun and jumped - practically flew with help from Lift - and landed in front of Enki. She held both her shields together and showed the forward shield of a Commander.
"Go!" demanded Hardiman. "I've got these things."
He blinked to the edge of the bridge, away from the core, pulled his hands in, then up and out. Arc Light raced from his arms, out his palms, and showered the core indiscriminately with electricity. The Light passed over Soren and Kaara harmlessly, so they acquiesced and ran past him on either side to join their Titans.
The Taken beneath Hardiman's Light seemed paralyzed, but they were stronger then they appeared. At the retreat of Hardiman's allies, they, too, used vile imitations of super abilities. The Hunters, rather than Arc Staves or Blades, grew claws. The Titans engorged and grew tails, the white point of their heads almost a cyclops' eye to Hardiman's gaze. The Warlocks almost seemed to melt and began to fling black goo at Hardiman, through his Stormtrance.
Where the ooze struck him, Hardiman felt his power vanish. Not simply slow or diminish, but disappear. One of his arms ceased releasing electricity.
"The Tak-"
Hunters pounced on him and he went silent before his warning was completed. As the Taken advanced, a Titan jumped from the core and landed on what remained of Hardiman-13, crushing his chest under its new weight.
Kaara heard the thud, and she was the only one to turn fast enough. Enki and Soren were busy shooting through Gravian's Commander Shield, forcing their way down the bridge, kicking the bodies of their fallen enemies over the side as they went.
Where she never thought she'd find the strength to do so again, Kaara found the Spectral Blade in her right and and Arc Blade in her left once more. She met the claws of the Taken Hunters with her knives, forced one over the side of the bridge, and stabbed the other twice in the ribs before kneeing it backward. One of the Titans pounced for her and she twisted, cat-like and agile, to jam her Spectral Blade through the back of its neck.
A Warlock warped past her and sprayed black ooze at her allies, so she turned and drop-kicked it to the floor on its chest. Her feet sunk in partially, but she beheaded the creature with a sweep of her Blades. Behind her, the remaining four Taken framed her as Enki finally looked back.
A Titan flicked out its tail to bend her knees. With rigid hands, its fingers forced through her back and out her stomach, and it ripped her in two halves, top and bottom. The other remaining Titan curb-stomped her helmet into the bridge, all the while staring a laser into Enki's only working eye.
"The bridge is clear, we need to-!" Soren turned back, trusting Gravian with the advance. He didn't see Kaara. Or rather, saw what was left, and saw Enki's back.
"You two go."
"B-"
Enki threw a back kick without even looking and hit Soren in the chest. He bounced off Gravian, who helped him stay on his feet.
"Go. My sanity won't last anyway. Either the Vex or the Dark were going to win me over again sooner or later."
He looked back at them.
"Let me die myself this time."
His right eye flickered white a few times, then orange, then white, then off again.
Soren was at a loss for words.
"We must go." Gravian began dragging Soren by his back collar. "Our House may yet need us. We must report our success!"
Soren twisted out of her grip savagely.
"Success?! Success?! We just-"
The advancing Taken reached Enki and he produced his physical shield. The ooze impacted the metal and stuck, so Enki threw it aside and used his Ward of Dawn. A Titan jumped clear over it to lunge for Soren.
Soren exploded back into Radiance and used both hands to launch what would otherwise be a Stormcaller's Chaos Reach. The ray of Light vaporized the Taken on contact and washed over Enki's Ward, solar wind blocked by the Earth's magnetosphere.
"We are leaving!" asserted Gravian.
Enki ducked under a swipe from the Hunter, punched it in the gut to send it sailing out of the Ward and into the Warlock. The remaining Titan held its arms wide and slowly entered the Ward, a clear challenge. It and Enki took turns dodging and blocking until Enki slid a foot out to knock one of its feet out of place, then smashed the back of his fist into its helmet to send it over the side of the bridge. With its tail extending, it swung completely under and around, catching Enki from his left and carrying him to the floor.
"Go!"
Another dropship appeared, carrying both Dark Guardians and more Taken into the chamber.
"They don't know why we were here," said Gravian. "If we stay, expose our motive, this will all be for nothing."
Soren swallowed the sun and turned to follow her.